


Can't Go Home, Shouldn't Stay Here

by Kivan



Series: From the Fires [1]
Category: Batman - All Media Types, Teen Titans (Comics), Young Justice (Cartoon)
Genre: Bat Family, Batfamily Feels, Coping Mechanisms, F/M, M/M, Past Relationship(s), Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Silly Boys, bomb threats
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-26
Updated: 2015-06-26
Packaged: 2018-04-06 07:12:26
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,530
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4212693
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kivan/pseuds/Kivan
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p><i>The riots in this part had been some of the first and they had bled for weeks throughout the outskirts, then toward the heart of the city. </i>Like a disease.<i> Tim remembers standing on a rooftop downtown watching the fires and riots slowly travel down one of the major streets and Damian equating them to just that. It had seemed like the most appropriate thing he'd heard in weeks at that point.</i></p>
            </blockquote>





	Can't Go Home, Shouldn't Stay Here

**Author's Note:**

> The team is built like Young Justice- when Dick moves on for the most part and leaves Tim in charge. Cassie is naive but less aggressive compared to N52 version. But Tim grows into the N52 version of himself. Kon is somewhere between YJ and N52 emotionally. M'Gaan is there, unlike N52, but Garfield isn't attached to her like a child. Bart and Jaime are still precious. And the Bats all have PTSD.  
> Just felt like I needed to say that.

For the first two weeks after he moves back to the Tower, Bart follows him around like a puppy.

Tim doesn't really mind. He had missed the company of his friends more than he probably knew.

They drink through pots of coffee and talk about nothing. They've played through the entire storyline of Little Big Planet before Bart finally asks if he's staying. Tim feels himself smile when he says he doesn't plan on leaving, no. The Titans are as much his family as Gotham herself is.

After Bart its Cassie, who asks him for help with a paper for her Bio-Chem III class. While talking her through a crash course on cellular theory, because Cassie had missed more classes then she'd attended, she lands a quick soft punch on his shoulder.

"What was that for?" He asks, momentarily stunned.

"It was weird without you here," she says, and to Tim it feels like all the melancholy between them is suddenly bittersweet, and the tension in his shoulders feels a bit lighter.

"I missed you too, Cassie."

She laughs, but doesn't debate the statement, before verbally coaxing him to continue trying to educate her.

Garfield sits on his shoulder for a few days, while they deal with a robbery spree through the city. Instead of taking his usual bird forms, he takes up a mouse and sit on Tim's neck to enjoy the gliders better control.

M'gaan spends a bit more time than necessary patching his wounds. Jaime makes him use a new elaborate hand shake, which Bart then makes worse.

Oddly enough it's Kon who keeps his distance longest. Even after Dick calls them in for back-up on the outskirts of Gotham.

Bart says it first, when they cross the fence, that though it doesn't look like much now, had kept Gotham separated for months prior. "Man, this place looks like a battlefield, and we just got here."

He's not wrong. The outer edges of the city are still charred and empty from the fires that Scarecrow started in the first weeks and that had continued for months after. Tim doesn't reply, his mind already lost in the memory of the blazes.

They reach the area that use to be the start of the narrows before Tim forces himself to focus back in the now. The buildings are all empty, hallow, windows blown out and doors for the larger part torn off. The riots in this part had been some of the first and they had bled for weeks throughout the outskirts, then toward the heart of the city.

_Like a disease._

Tim remembers standing on a rooftop downtown watching the fires and riots slowly travel down one of the major streets and Damian equating them to just that. It had seemed like the most appropriate thing he'd heard in weeks at that point.

"Where are we supposed to be meeting Nightwing," Superboy asks shortly, and Tim turns to him, nearly surprised to have the other man pinning him with a hard look. It was rare for Superboy to address him personally these days.

It was like their entire relationship had rebooted since he'd come back, and now they were stuck in the days where they shared the fewest words possible to achieve their common goals. Back before they were friends, or anything else for that matter.

"This way," he answers, ignoring the tension between them and quickly leading the way through the street and into what used to be a midsized factory.

Once their six man team is fully inside, away from the sparse shadow cast by the open bay door, only then do Nightwing, Batgirl ( _her blond braid flipping over her shoulder_ ) and Robin fall gracefully and soundlessly from the rafters.

"That's so much weirder when it's not just you doing it, Red," Cassie mock whispers to him. Tim watches Dick smirk, Steph laugh quietly and the Damian roll his eyes.

"Welcome back to Gotham, Titans," Dick greets them solemnly.

"You mean, what's left of it," Gar scoffs. Damian's shoulders shift. Before he can move, Tim throws the young hero a sharp look. Gar recoils, "No disrespect meant, or anything."

"Anyway," Steph calls, causing the team to look at her, most of them seeing her in the Batgirl suit for the first time. Tim watches her place a soft but chastising hand on Damian's arm, even though he's now a head taller than her.

"Right," Nightwing continues, "We called you because a group of metas are making moves on the docks."

"Attempting to, anyway," Robin cuts in, his arms crossing over his chest in a pure Damian show of petulance.

Nightwing continues like he hasn't said anything, "We also believe they're attempting to move something nuclear, so to alleviate the risk, we figured it was best to call in help."

"Obviously," Bart replies needlessly, and everyone ignores him.

"Do you have any information on their abilities," Cassie asks, nearly beating he words out of Tim's mouth. She then immediately looks at him, Tim nearly laughs at how reprimanded she looks without him saying anything. Damian does scoff this time, before quickly tossing a flash drive to him, disregarding Cassie completely. Tim plugs it into his suit and looks the information over on his holoscreen quickly.

Dick will know the docks better than Steph, and Tim will need to disable the bomb himself if there is one. The plan forms in his head as he looks over the three Supers profiles and then the list of items the small group had stolen over the last two weeks.

"If this isn't an explosive, they're making a lot of barbeque," Tim sighs. "M'gaan, go with Nightwing and disable the perimeter cameras." Without needing explanation, Dick nods and motions for Miss. Martian to follow him. "Impulse, Beast Boy, go with Batgirl, take out any back up the metas may have brought in. Wondergirl, Superboy, Robin, with me. These meta aren't gonna want us to get to their merchandise and I need you to cover me while I disable it. Bart, once the rabble are down, I'll need you to have their backs."

"Roger that," Bart chirps. His voice in that moment is a complete contrast to everything Tim feels right then, that it makes his heart hurt for a moment.

Steph smiles at him before turning and Bart, with Gar in tow disappear after her. Damian's arms are still secure over his chest, and until Tim finished reading over the information the other three people left in the room remain silent.

If he cared, Tim probably would have thrown Damian a warning look when he gave Kon a dismissive snort. But as it were, Tim finished with the data and tossing the drive back to the not-so-young Robin, wordless started toward the other end of the mill, which would lead them to the docks.

“Get along,” Tim tells all three of them, “Or someone might get hurt, and I don’t want to deal with that tonight. Understood?”

“Yeah,” Cassie replies quickly, knowing that though Tim had been talking mostly to the two other men, she was still included in that.

“Understood,” Damian answers, his tone guarded and not entirely pleased.

“Whatever,” Kon sighs. Instantly, Tim turns, all too quickly toe-to-toe with the taller man, eyes narrowed in a way that makes Kon bristle.

"This isn't a _fucking joke_ ," he growls and watches Superboy slowly evaluate him. " _Understood_?"

If this was a total reboot of their relationship, Kon probably would have hit him by now. But Tim could tell- could see the wheels turning in his head, watches his fists clench and then stretch out, his jaw rolls in physical restraint.

But this wasn't the time or place- or company- for them to have whatever fight Kon has been waiting for.

" _Understood_ ," Kon growls back, after a long moment.

Turning back to continue to the docks, Tim sees that Cassie and Damian had been ready to intervene. He's not sure if it makes him feel better or worse, because if they're both ready, the tension is probably just as bad as he thinks it is.

While waiting for the signal from Dick and M’gaan, Damian moves up next to him, as they wait on the tin roof of the warehouse overlooking the dock. From where they sit, below Tim can make out the shapes of the three metas, two larger males and a thin, nearly sickly looking girl between them. Damian doesn't say anything, just crouches alongside him in a way that makes Tim remember the fires and the months Gotham lost and, everything that came after.

"Who came up with those code names," Tim asks barely above a whisper.

Instantly Damian snickers and just as quietly says, "Nightwing, obviously."

"I mean," Tim whisper sighs, "Miss. Mist?"

"He's as unoriginal as ever," Damian agrees the lines of his shoulders relaxing minimally since Tim had confronted Kon. "You are the one who told me to just accept his antics."

Tim feels the chuckle bubble out of his mouth before he can stop it. "Well, when you assign them, they're all Greek letters and numbers."

"That system would have been much more effective," Damian huffs in something close to annoyance.

" _Alpha-eighty-eight, moving north_ ," Tim mocks, and can feel the younger man's eyes roll next to him. "We would have needed a _catalog_ in the field," he laughs. "As ridiculous as Nightwing’s codenames get, they are much more self-explanatory."

Damian sighs, "Because you people refused to even attempt the codex system."

"Just, no, man. Wouldn't have been helpful at all," Tim cuts him off, and it feels like all the tension is suddenly off his shoulders.

As if he knows Dicks calls out over the coms that the security system is down.

When he turns to signal to Kon and Cassie, he ignores the curious look the other man is giving them.

Tim extends his glider wings as Superboy, Wondergirl and Robin swiftly move to engage the metas, Impulse is a swift red blur around the perimeter of the warehouse, Beast Boy a green falcon drawing their attention while Batgirl manages to take down two before Impulse clears the field.

The larger meta engages Kon with a quick right hook, while Cassie manages to catch the other off guard. Robin, exactly on par with Tim’s analysis, moves quickly before the third, much smaller meta can activate her ability and with the quick taser shocks, she falls unconscious, but it’s only a quick moment before Tim watches him turn to where Superboy is almost literally bashing faces with the largest meta.

The gilder’s wings carry Tim easily to where the crate containing the explosive is still hanging in midair, half way transported onto the waiting ship deck to be moved out of the city.

He wishes he could just let it leave, move one more volatile piece of equipment out of his home. _Gotham’s been through enough, she doesn’t need any more violence._ As he removes the face plate from the still inactive timer, Tim tries to deny he could replace Gotham with his own name and the words could hold the same meaning. _Tries to deny that he's as that burnt out as their city._

“ _Get out of Gotham_ ,” Dick had told him less than a week after the barriers had come down, sighing heavily, “You moved out of the city before all of this started, Tim. Go back to Jump City, to the Titans. Maybe it’ll be easier if you go back to them.” He could remember how Damian had shifted his grip on the bo staff in his hand, and not said anything. Dick had looked between them both and sighed. Jason had left hours before; Steph had been in her room for days. “ _Hell_ ,” Dick had continued, “If I had anywhere else I would want to be, I’d go, at least for a while.”

Since the wall had come down, the crime rate in Gotham was at an all-time low. Like a candle that the wick had been burnt too long on, the entire city was just a small pillar of smoke. Tired and charred. Though none of them had delusions it would last more than a couple more months.

These metas weren’t even from Gotham. They had probably pillaged the parts from the abandoned areas, used the scraps to make a bigger, bad-er thing.

Dick hadn’t been wrong, going back to the Titans had helped. His nightmares weren’t just of Scarecrows fires, or the city block that Ivy had taken over on the west side of town- where the plants had made people dream and never want wake up. He could forget the taste of the bile in his throat from when Bane had gone on a rampage in the ninth month and almost killed Babs. It had taken all eight of them to stop him for good, over three days of stop and go fighting- hiding and bleeding.

The wires shake in his hands, and Tim remembers why he had gone back to Jump City. He can hear Kon and Cassie still fighting outside the crate, the liquid nitrogen in the containers around him hissing and dripping- buthis fingers won’t stop shaking.

There’s an explosion and then a louder thump on the outside of the crate, before Damian is slipping through the hatch above him and reaching around him, pulling his hands back and leaning against him. “Tell me what to do,” the younger man tells him. Damian’s voice is steady, and his hands don’t shake as Tim begins to explain the steps to him. He can feel the heat of Damian’s body against his back, even with the layers of Kevlar. “Keep talking,” Damian coxes him when he starts to slip into the memories again.

“I’m sorry,” Tim tells him suddenly. Damian huffs, still holding the separated wires and his head falls for a moment against Tim shoulder. He spits a curse in rapid Arabic that any other time Tim probably would have been able to catch, but right now, he can barely focus on the schematics of the bomb that at this point may kill them both.

“As much as I enjoy you apologizing, beloved, this is not the time and most assuredly _not_ the place to be having this conversation,” Damian tells him quietly, hands holding the wires and forehead tucked against Tim’s neck. But with Damian wrapped around him, regardless of the kiloton bomb in front of them, this is the safest Tim has felt in weeks.

“I need to come home more,” Tim says again, and he can feel Damian sigh against him.

“The _bomb_ , beloved,” Damian nearly whines, “Then we can talk about this revelation.” With a resolute sigh, Tim forces his hands to move, taking half the wires from between Damian’s fingers, and rearranging them. Unplugging the nitrogen, the lithium, configuring the bomb to detonate differently.

Because Tim knows it’s not just Gotham that deserves to be free of all those volatile things, and this bomb just leaving her shores won’t solve anything in the long run.

Kind of like how leaving Gotham isn’t going to fix the nightmares he is still having.


End file.
